The Girl from Lima Heights Adjacent
by Leahbasa
Summary: Santana Lopez is from the worst part of town and had a rainsoaked childhood that she would prefer to remail hidden from her friends at William Mckinley. What will she do when a certain pregnant blonde cheerleader is suddenly thrust into her secret world? AU during season one, no slash/sex. Includes tough topics, abuse
1. Chapter 1

There are two sides of Lima, the north and the south. And they are about as different as two neighborhoods can be. In between the north and the south is downtown Lima.

Northern Lima is called the north. It contains the country club, and a large assortment of new and fancy restaurants. It's public library was recently refurbished and now contains a new technology lab and an extensive after-school tutoring center. The neighborhood middle school has a large pool, sports facility, and active PTA. Even the train line that runs from downtown to the north, the Brown Line, is clean and efficient. It has minimal graffiti and practically no crime. The north is a pleasant area to raise a family.

The south is a different story. People call it the Heights or Lima Heights due to its large number of tall apartment buildings. Lets take a tour by riding the main bus route in Lima, the number 9, down Ashland Street. Ashland goes all the way from the north to the southern city limits, an area known as Lima Heights Adjacent. Ashland Street is just west of downtown, so the number 9 does not go through the city.

The bus starts in the wealthy neighborhood, predominantly white upperclass. The streets are neat and the lawns trim. Wrought iron fences surround the large tidy houses and charming flower patches line the sidewalk. The sun is shining and the sky is blue as the bus bumbles its way south down Ashland Street. As the bus proceeds south, the houses grow smaller and closer together. More kids are seen running down the sidewalks which are brightly decorated with chalk drawings and hopscotch grids and candy bar wrappers. Neighbors sit on the curb, eating and having neighborly conversations. Its not the wealthy neighborhood but its very comfortable.

The bus is now just west of downtown and on a block with several apartment buildings. Their yards are fenced with chain link fencing and the kids of this neighborhood are messing around on a nearby basketball court. The hoop is missing its net but the kids are having a blast. Nearby, a squirrel munches on the garbage in an overturned trashcan. The grownups here work a little later but still find time to socialize occasionally.

Now the bus is in the south. Gone are the fancy gates and impeccable yards. Chain link fences surround the apartment yards and the kids are playing in the streets. Potholes big enough for a child to sit in dot the streets. The train the runs from downtown to here, the Green Line, has armed security at every stop and homeless people sleep on the steps nightly. The neighborhood middle school recently adopted a new system in which see-through, plastic backpacks are required for all students. Three young people with clear backpacks sit on the curb, watching the setting sun make long shadows down the cracked concrete. They pass a bottle between the three of them. People don't have time to socialize here, most people are working class minorities. A nearby store has a sign "Se habla español, tenemos clases de ingles" (We speak Spanish, we have classes for English). A few members of the neighborhood gang "Los Reyes Latinos" (The Latin Kings) loiter around the entrance to a corner store. This gang is idolized by most of the boys from the area.

A young woman holding a baby in one hand a pushing a cart in the other enters the store, followed by a little girl.

"Mommy, can I get that?" She cries, pointing to a display of a pink feather pen in the window. The mother checks her wallet and replies "No, baby, we're only getting food today." She pulls out a small book labeled "Ohio LINK" and enters the store. (Author's note: I live in Chicago and our food stamps are called Illinois LINK cards. I don't know what they're called in Ohio so I'm just going to call them Ohio LINK.)

The bus is now on the border between Lima Heights and Lima Heights Adjacent. The Adjacent is most certainly different that the Heights. Members of los reyes latinos don't venture into the Adjacent unless accompanied by their friends, their guns and their friend's guns. the apartments and projects are so close that there is no room for yards anymore. Kids play of the roof, or in the abandoned lots. Most boys from this area drop out of school to join a gang. The housing projects are over thirty stories high and are drug dealing havens. Prostitutes and dealers stalk the hallways and drug trades go down in the stairs. Large families with six, seven, and eight kids live here. Almost no grownups in this area speak English. The number 9 bus has reached it's last and possibly most grim stop. It is on Garfield Street. Across the street is the centro de crisis para niños, the children's crisis center. On the next block is the area widely known as the Adjacent Hell. This is the home of Santana Lopez.


	2. Chapter 2

Santana was the youngest of eight. Her earliest memories included her older sister, Alejandra, throwing her behind a dumpster and covering Santana with her body as gunshots sounded across the street. Alejandra and José were the two oldest Lopez children. The family lived in Cabrini Green, one of the biggest projects in the Adjacent Hell. They had a small apartment with four rooms. The boys; José, Antonio, Jesus and Aldolfo shared a room and Santana, Alejandra, Xitlali, and Margarita shared the other. The third room was for their parents, though their father, Ramón, was barely ever home. When José, the oldest, was 15, Ramón was barely 30.

Santana could remember Alejandra pushing her against the wall so hard that she fell off the side was stuck between the bed and the wall. Then Alejandra would lay on top of her so the when Ramón came in drunk and raging, he would take Alejandra and wouldn´t hurt Santana, Xitlali or Margarita. Alejandra would hear him through the thin walls of the project and without wasting a second, throw the younger kids in the closet or under the bed. José would do the same with the boys.

Santana´s mother, Lorena, would sit in her bedroom, bottle of vodka in hand, sobbing as she heard Ramón hitting Alejandra or smashing her head against the wall. She buried her head in the pillow and screamed a scream that nobody heard when she heard the woosh and crack of Ramón´s belt on José´s battered body. Lorena was the same age as Ramón and very small.

The next day, Alejandra or José would get up and limp over to the bed and wake up the kids for school. They knew that frequent absences would mean a call home. They had no phone, so they assumed that the school would send a grown up over to their house. They feared this so much that they allowed Alejandra to rustle them awake the day after even the worst fights. Like a mother combing her children´s hair in the morning, Alejandra would sit in front of each child one at a time and cover their bruises with makeup. José would dress them all and make sure they were looking presentable. José washed their few sheets and clothes in the bathroom that their whole hallway shared and hung them in the bedroom to dry. He had made the mistake once of hanging them on a clothesline and almost all of the clothes were stolen. Alejandra, José and Margarita worked several jobs each like convenience shops, car washes, drycleaners and fast food restaurant. The older kids all dropped out of school to work and feed the rest at home. Santana and her twin brother Jesus at age seven, were so proud to get their job of taking out the garbage for the whole project building on Saturday. This took them all day, from the crack of dawn until past 10 at night, dragging their old red wagon down the long halls. They didn´t notice the drug dealers in the elevator or the prostitutes the halls. Some of the prostitutes were nice and gave them candy but all of them told the kids the same thing. ¨Get out of here while you can.¨ Santana and Jesus made several dollars each and always gave all of their money to Alejandra and José to buy them food.

The kids all knew how to lie, they were coached to expain away bruises or limps with the usual ¨I fell out of a tree¨, ¨I tripped over my brother´s toys¨, ¨I was playing with my tio´s cigarrette and burned myself¨. Santana remembered explaining to a teacher that her wrist was broken in a car accident and the teacher stopping her midsentance.

¨Santana, you can tell me if anything is wrong, you know that honey, right?¨ The teacher lifted her hand to stroke Santana´s hair, but Santana flinched at her hand and ran out of the room.

Once, Alejandra had forgotten to lock the closet and Ramón had found the young girls. He started to drag out Santana by the ankle, only stopping to knock Alejandra out with his vodka bottle when she tried to stop him. Lorena heard the small cries of her youngest daughter and jumped out of bed. Running into the girl´s room, she stood in front of Ramón and cried ¨¡dejar de sufrir a nuestros hijos! " (stop hurting our children!). Ramón grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into their bedroom, leaving the children to huddle in a group a cry silently as they heard screams in the next room.

But that was more than ten years ago. Santana was now 16. She had tested out of her neighborhood highschool, Juarez, and was the only girl from the Adjacent Hell, Lima Heights Adjacent and one of the few from Lima Heights who had gotten into McKinley high school. Ramón hadn´t been home in over seven years. Alejandra, Margarita, and Aldolfo had all left home. José had been killed by a spare bullet from a gang shootout in the street. Xitlali had gotten pregnant at 15 and had moved in with her boyfriend. Antonio had overdosed on drugs and died a few years ago. Alejandra and her boyfriend, a good man, visited often. They had two kids and were expecting their third soon. She was 26 and her boyfriend was 30.

Despite her rainsoaked childhood, Santana had to admit that life was much better now. Every meal, aunts uncles and cousins came in and brought food. The Lopez´s had a relatively large apartment and there was never less than twenty relatives friend and neighbors at their house for dinner. Her small bedroom with so many bad memories now had a bunk bed in it. Every night, Santana either shared the bed with her cousins or joined the others on the floor in sleeping bags or mats. She often had to sleep in a sleeping bag because she was the last in at night. The younger cousins and the older relatives went to bed early so the light were usually turned off at 9:00.

Santana stayed in the hallway to do her homework. At nearly midnight every night, she would creep into her apartment and usually dodge a slap from her drunk mother and a whispered demand to come in earlier to help put the kids to sleep. She would tiptoe between the many sleeping bags and mats on the floor to the closet that she had spent her childhood hiding in. Sticking her foot in a hole in the wall, she propped herself up to the shelf that only she could reach. She turned on the small little battery light and looked at her few possesions. No one else on the Cheerios would guess that her uniform was one of her most prized possessions, nor that she washed it in the sink that she shared with her entire floor. She put her school books with her uniform, turned off the lamp and looked for a small space of floor to sleep on between her many cousins.

Lorena told Santana in one of her rare sober moments, that she was the hope of the Lopez family. She asked her not to get pregnant until later and to finish high school. Santana promised that she would and unlike her father, she intended to keep her promises.


	3. Chapter 3

Santana stayed at Cheerios practice until 6:00 because coach Sylvester wouldn't let anybody leave until Kylie stuck her roundoff-full twist-aerial. Kylie had recently gotten her cast off her broken ankle and despite being one of the best gymnasts at McKinley, theres only so much a girl in an ankle brace can do. Finally, after a full hour of shouting and bullying from Coach Sylvester, Kylie stuck her tumbling pass for a couple seconds, then collased in a puddle of tears and had to be carried off by her friends.

Santana groaned as she checked her phone clock and saw the time. It was past 6:00, it took her at least an hour and a half to get home and the gangs would be out now. Worse, an especially large group of relatives were coming tonight and her mother expected her to be home to help out. If that wasn't enough, she had a project for spanish and chemistry due tomorrow and an english test to study for. Santana rubbed some cream into the bruise on her arm. The triangle hadn't held well and Santana was on the second to highest level when it collapsed, sending her directly onto Brittany's elbow below. Even though she knew it was an accident and most of the other girls near the top of the triangle were sporting bruises now too, it still sent a chill down her spine. It reminded her of the old days, of Alejandra wearing long sleeves so she wouldn't scare the younger ones with her bruises as she did their makeup and coverup. Of the days in the Crisis Center that she didn't want to go near again for the rest of her life.

Santana shook her head to clear the memories, wrapped her sore ankle and stood up to leave the locker room.

"Hey, San! C'mon, we're going to the mall!" shouted Quinn and a few of the other Cheerios.

"Ugh, sorry, I can't today." She rolled her eyes and Quinn's angelic, questioning face and half-said half-groaned "Family's visiting."

"Ooh, that sucks. Are they staying at your place?" Santana nodded and mimicked vomiting. Quinn smiled. "I remember when my aunt, uncle and three cousins all stayed over at my house on the same night. It was so noisy and crowded, I wanted to die." Santana smiled also. She wondered what Quinn would think if she saw Santana's apartment on a daily basis. Because Santana came from and extremely poor and large family, anyone who got evicted from their home, and this happened quite often, stayed at the Lopez house until they got back up on their feet. Therefore so many family and friends slept over every night, it was understandable that Santana found Quinns comment amusing. Quinn probably would die if she saw the Lopez apartment at night, with so many people in sleeping bags and mattresses across the floor that there was barely room to walk and babies sleeping in laundry baskets.

"You sure you don't just want me to drive you home?" Asked Quinn as she pulled to a stop in front of a downtown subway stop.

"Oh, yeah, I live kinda far away and I don't want to take up your mall time." said Santana, detangling herself from the pile of Cheerios and backpacks in the back seat.

"Where _do_ you live?" Asked Quinn. Santana pretended not to have heard.

"Well, off to visit with my lovely family." Santana pretended to hang herself with her purse strap and made a grotesque face. Brittney and a few people in the back laughed.

"San, where do you live?"

"I...I think I hear my train coming. Bye, guys!" She ran down the stairs, leaving a confused Quinn on the street.

Sitting on a bench in the train tunnel, Santana was breathing heavily. She was very touchy about where she lived and was happy that no one at McKinley knew. The address the school had was a P.O. box downtown. Alejandra had set it up partly to not let other people know where they lived, partly because all of the mailboxes in the Adjacent were broken into so often that mail was rarely delivered. The mailmen were scared of going into the adjacent. Alejandra had a job of an interpreter at the Mexican Embassy in downtown Lima. She was proud of her job and proud that because of her, her boyfriend and children were some of the only ones in the family with financial security. She had enough money to move into a nicer, safer neighborhood but instead chose to use her money to help support the younger siblings who still lived at home with the rest of the friends and family in the crowded apartment at Cabrini Green in Adjacent Hell. She had firmly told Santana that she was taking care of the rent and that Santana should stay in school.

Santana checked her phone and saw that the next train to South Lima wasn't coming for another ten minutes so she took out her notebook and started working on her Spanish project. It wasn't going to be easy, even though she spoke Spanish better that she spoke English. The project was a family tree, with descriptions of each family member written in Spanish. When Mr. Schue had assigned it, she almost laughed out loud. She had seventeen aunts and uncles, more than eighty cousins and almost forty nieces and nephews. In her notebook, she began writing down which relatives to use. She tried to pick out the ones with the most American-sounding names, a hard task because save her and her siblings, most of their family had been born in Mexico. By the time her train arrived, she had a list of eleven relatives. She had drawn the tree on a piece of paper and was done with the descriptions by the time the train reached the last stop, Cabrini and Garfield street.

The train was elevated above the street and she could just see the sun setting behind the tall projects. She was about to walk down the stairs when the African American guy her age next to her pulled out a gun, and pointed it down the stairs and at a member of los latinos reyes. The boy downstairs, a childhood friend of Santana pulled out his own and aimed it up, shouting "What's up, ése?"

Santana jumped out of the way and without thinking, jumped in a train heading back to downtown. She turned the music on her phone louder, hoping to drown out the sound of the shots. She hated it when the black gang and the latino gang fought. It was pointless, and it caused a pang in her heart everytime she remembered the driveby bullet that went through José's head.

At the next stop, she got off and waited for a train returning back to Cabrini Green. Santana was incredibly envious of her fellow classmates who didn´t have to deal with any of this. She wasn't going to be home until past dark and her mother was going to be furious. Worse, her uncle, Tio Ulises, would probably beat her for disobeying her mother and not being home to watch the kids.

Ulises had been carried over the border by Santana's mother to join his parents and the rest of the family in America when they were young children. Since then, he had idol worshipped her. He was a loving man, albeit quite an alcoholic, and helped pay the rent and took care of the numerous children in the apartment. He hated disrespect, especially towards his sister and was known to take a few swings at whoever showed her a smart mouth or didn't do what she said. Ramón's children were used to having bones broken and teeth knocked out by their father, so the occasional backhand really didn't bother them. The worst they got from their mother was getting whacked on the butt a few times with a wooden spoon but it pretty much stayed at that. Santana just hoped he wasn't too drunk tonight.

The train reached Cabrini and Garfield. Santana ran from the station to her house, not even waiting for the bus. It ran infrequently at night and she had to get home now. Besides wanting to avoid a possible encounter with a certain wooden spoon, she did feel bad leaving her mother alone to care for so many children. She reached the towering and infamous Cabrini Green building by eight thirty and ran to the elevator. Cabrini Green was home to one of the most infamous drug trades in the city, located on the top floor. Members of los reyes guarded the elevator for cops and rival gang members but Santana had lived there her whole life and didn't notice them anymore. She was friends with some and related to others. Her friend, Miguel, was in the elevator when she entered, sweaty and out of breath.

"¿Que pasa, mija? ¿La Migra after you, pretty girl?" Miguel laughed, rustling her hair. Santana remembered that here in the projects, nobody spoke good English. All of her friends and cousins her age spoke a sort of half English with a lot of Spanish mixed in. She made sure to speak like them when she was home so she wouldn't sound stuck up.

"Floor twenty-six, Miguel, I'm really late and my family's visiting."

"Calm yo self, baby, I know your floor." He punched the button and the metal elevator clanged up the chute. "Your familia's aqui? Ooh your ass gonna get whooped."

"I know, I'm dead." The doors rattled open. "You wanna come in for food? Mi mamá made posole."

"Oooh sounds good." He pulled a boy from the hall in and told him. "Antonio, can you watch the elevator for los reyes? I'm on cop duty but I'm goin for a sec with mi novia (Translation: girlfriend) to get somma dat posole."

"Ya, homie, if you bring me some." Antonio adjusted his gun under the wasteband of his pants and switched places with Miguel.

"Really, Miguel? Tu novia?" whispered Santana. He shrugged and smirked. Santana sighed. He could be a pain, but he really was a good friend. Santana and Miguel walked down the hall to her apartment and walked in. Miguel was friends with some of her brothers and cousins so he walked across the room to join them. Santana gritted her teeth and walked into the kitchen.

Her mother heard her entering and took a swing at her with the wooden spoon. Santana ducked the spoon and backed up against the counter as her mother shouted.

**(AUTHORS NOTE: The following conversation is in spanish but in case some of you readers don't speak spanish, I wrote it in english)**

"Santana, where were you!? I was here by my self and I needed you to help me with the kids while I cooked. Huh? Where were you?! "

"I-" Santana started weakly. Her mother slapped her across the face and continued alternating yelling and trying to hit her with the wooden spoon, which she continuously dodged.

"Maria! The babies!" said Tia Marisa angrily, sticking her head in the doorway. Miguel looked over Tia Marisa's head, saw what was happening in the kitchen and jumped up. He attempted a casual stroll into the kitchen, at which Maria's demeanor completely changed. She brushed off her apron and briskly pointed her wooden spoon at the large pot on the stove and said "Eat! Both of you, its late. Do you want some to bring back to your family, Miguel?" She knelt down to the floor cabinets and started looking for a container to give Miguel some posole to take home.

Santana stood up and discretely rubbed her butt where her mother had hit her a few times with a wooden spoon. "Well, that could have been worse" She thought. However, Maria's shouting had woken up Tio Ulises, who stomped in, drunk and angry.

"Don't disrespect your mother, bitch!" He cocked back his fist and punched Santana hard in the face. At once, Miguel jumped up and pulled Ulises back. Maria started shouting at Ulises and hitting him with the spoon.

"How dare you! Get out!"

Ulises seemed to wake up and realize what he did. "Oh my goodness, Santana. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, please forgive me." He knelt down beside her but she flinched and scooched away from him. She was living a memory, seeing Ramón beating Alejandra with broken bottles, smashing José's head against the wall so hard it left dents, breaking her wrist the time she spilled her juice. Ulises tried to touch her and she jumped back and cried "Stop it, papá!" Ulises looked up at Maria with tears in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to, Maria, please believe me, I am so sorry."

"Get out of my house, Ulises."

Maria sat on the floor next to Santana and held the ice Miguel got to her face.

"Shhh, shhh baby I'm here this time, nothing is going to happen to you.


	4. Chapter 4

Santana woke up to find herself sleeping in a bed completely to herself, an extremely rare occurance. She turned off her alarm and checked the time. 3:55. She began to yawn, then immediately closed her mouth, as the movement sent pain shooting up her cheek. She suddenly remembered everything that had happened the night before. She wiped the tear that ran down her cheek as Alejandra rolled over on a mat and sat up. Seeing Santana's face, she immediately hugged her sister close and wiped her tears off. Together, they got dressed and walked across the hallway to the bathroom. Alejandra carefully did Santana's makeup. "Just like old times" thought Santana sadly. She wondered if Tio Ulises would turn into Ramón, coming in every few nights to rough everyone up and steal the little money that their mother had. The very thought pained her and she put it out of her mind.

She and Alejandra got back to their apartment and searched the kitched for leftovers. Santana pulled a cold cheese quesadilla out of the fridge. Suddenly she jumped up.

"Oh, no!" She cried. "I didn't do any of my homework!"

"I read through your assignments and did your chemistry and Spanish project while you were sleeping." Said Alejandra quietly.

"Oh, I love you so much." She hugged her sister and looked under the bed for her backpack. She pulled out her Spanish and chemistry projects and caught her breath. Alejandra was a beautiful artist and had drawn a large tree on a poster board and small sketches of each family member with the descriptions written below. The chemistry project also had sketches of the compounds she was supposed to describe, complete with the balanced chemical equations, Lewis chemistry structures and key charachteristics. Attached to the corner with a paper clip were notecards for her presentation.

Santana looked up at Alejandra with tears in her eyes. Alejandra handed her another stack of notecards.

"These are for your English test. Its a good thing you copy down your assignments with so much detail!" Santana couldn't do anything but smile at the two beatiful projects.

"Alejandra, I-"

"Don't thank me." She said, firmly. "Now go out there and get an A." Alejandra put the projects in her bag and handed it to her. Santana noticed her slipping the tube of concealer into the front pocket, just in case.

Santana walked down the cracked pavement towards her bus. Thankfully, it came right away. She wasn't too scared about getting shot now, the gangs were mostly asleep this early in the morning. It was still dark outside and the cool breeze felt good on her bruised cheek. She couldn't believe she was going to school with makeup covering bruises again. The last time had been so many years ago, she could barely remember the shamful pangs she felt in her chest. Even though she knew that Alejandra was a master at covering bruises, she still felt like everyone who looked at her could see her purple cheek.

She climbed the stairs to the train and looked through the notecards that Alejandra had made her. They were perfect summaries and outlines of everything that was going to be on the test. Santana knew that even though Alejandra had dropped out of highschool at sixteen to support the family, Alejandra was very smart. She had gone back to get her GED, put herself through college and got a Masters in Linguistics in half the usual time.

The train reached the stop just south of downtown, in the dirty buisness area of south Lima. Santana hopped off and walked to a diner just as the clock on the tall bank building chimed 5:00. She put on her ugly uniform hat, tied on her apron, exchanged quick hellos with the other waitresses and got to work. Most of the other waitresses were older than her and had already dropped out of high school. They were friendly but laughed everytime they saw Santana studying during the break hour.

"Honey, you look like crap." Said Jacklyn one of the waitresses who was friends with Santana. She handed her a cup of the diner's greasy coffee. She looked up at her well painted but slightly swelling cheek and nodded. "Tough night?"

"Thanks" said Santana, taking the cup of coffee and turning her face so Jacklyn couldn't see her cheek. Santana knew that her and Jacklyn weren't supposed to be friends. Jacklyn's brother and father were members of the Avon Park Playboys, an African American gang that were main rivals of los reyes. She knew that Jacklyn was working to buy a place for her and her sister. Her sister was living at the Crisis Center in the Adjacent Hell.

Santana was bringing two cups of coffee to a table when Jamie, another African American waiter called her over.

"Hey, San, can ya take those guys order? My Spanish ain't worth shit." She looked over his shoulder and saw, to her terror Ramón and his friends laughing at a table. Without missing a beat, she ran out the side door and leaned against the brick wall, breathing heavily.

"Hey, girl, whats wrong?" Jacklyn was also in the alley, smoking a cigarrette.

"My dad...in there-" She sat down in the alley and tried to catch her breate

"Aww honey. I'll take care of this." Jacklyn patted Santana's shoulder and and walked into the diner. Santana smiled, knowing what Jacklyn could be when she was mad.

Inside the diner, she heard shouting.

"Do you know who my uncle is, cholo? He's real high up in the Playboys and if you don't pick yo border crossing ass up and get the fuck outta here, shits really gonna get real here. Understand me, pepe? Entiendes? Git on, fuck off." Santana heard angry voices, chairs being pushed back and people stomping out. She heard Ramón growling "Pinches cabrona." She let out a big sigh and walked back in. Jacklyn smiled at Santana and said

"Tell you what, shorty. Its almost 8:00. Why don't you go on and leave for school? We never have that many people Tuesday mornings." Santana gave her an eternally grateful look and went to the bathroom. She changed into her Cheerios uniform and touched up her makeup, happy that it hadn't slipped. She picked up her bag, left the bathroom and picked up her $30 from her boss and left the wretched diner.

By 8:15, she got to the cafe where she met her fellow Cheerios every morning. She got herself a latte and sat down by the window, studying for English. She quickly stowed the notecards in her bag when she saw her friends getting out of Quinn's car.

"Hey, San!" They all said, bustling in and getting in line for their drinks.

"Hey, girl, what's up?" asked Quinn, sitting down next to her. "You look tired as fuck."

Santana managed a grin. "Family kept me up. You know how loud little kids are."

"Ugh, I got you. Did you do the Spanish? Can you help me with mine? My Spanish isn't worth shit." Santana smiled, remembering James saying the exact same thing 20 minutes ago.

"Yeah." said Santana, scanning Quinns projects. "To say 'He likes baseball and soccer', say 'El le gusta el beisbol y el fútbol.' You wrote 'El le gusta el beisbol ni el fútbol,' which means 'He likes basebal nor soccer.'"

"Oh, yeah, I keep on forgetting that. Thanks, San!" Quinns smile turned to a frown as she looked at Santana's cheek. It seemed to be swelling and because she was sitting right next to her, Quinn could see that Santana had a thick layer of makeup on it.

Santana sensed Quinn staring and quickly stood up. "Can we go? I wanna put my cheer stuff in the locker room before school and Ms. Henderson's gonna shoot me if I'm late one more time." Quinn agreed because it was getting close to 8:30 and she really didn't need another tardy. In the car, Santana made sure to sit in the back, away from Quinn's questioning eyes and immersed herself in an excited conversation about their upcoming cheer contest in Colombus.

They pulled up to McKinley High with only a minute to spare so Santana had to sprint to English for her test. She sat down, out of breath and already exhausted for the day. She wished she could wear her hair down to cover her cheek but it was in a tight ponytail to match her cheer uniform.

The day buzzed on, filled with meaningless conversations, endless classes and constant trips to the bathroom to check her makeup. Cheerios practice was hell as usual but luckily ended at 4:45 because Coach Sylvester was in a good mood. Santana checked to make sure that her makeup hadn't slipped because of sweat, then turned to leave.

Quinn gave her a ride to the train, asking her again where she lived. Santana pretended not to have heard again ran down the tracks. Once she was sure that Quinn had left, she came up the stairs again and crossed the street to the main branch public library. She needed to print some things out for school and no one within ten miles of where she lived owned a printer. In the library, she ran into her Tia Alejandra. She said hello, had a little small talk, then asked her Tia if she could tell her mother that she was going to be late because she needed to work on some school stuff. Tia Alejandra was happy to find one of her nieces in a library and hugged her niece, telling her to stay as long as she needed.

It was past 9:30 when she looked up and realized how late it was. She wasn't to worried because when her mother knew that she was at the library, she wanted her to stay as long as possible. She had to make a stop on the way home because she had left her math notebook at the diner in the morning.

She walked across toen, not feeling like waiting for a bus or train, and reached the diner in the same, dirty, south side buisness district. She walked in and shouted hello to the friendly Mexican cook behind the counter.

"¡Hola, Santana! ¿como estas?"

"Estoy, bien, gracias. ¿Como estas usted?"

"Bien, bien. ¿Tienes hambre? Creo que tienes hambre. Espera un momento, tengo comida para tu." (Good, good. Are you hungry? Yeah, you're hungry. Wait here while I get you some food."

Santana picked up her notebook from behind the counter and was about to sit down when she heard sobbing behind her. She turned around and to her surprise, she found Quinn crying in the back of the diner.


	5. Chapter 5

**I just wanted to start with an Authors Note, even though I don't usually but here goes. This story has been very hard for me to write because it mirrors the lives of me and my family so closely. Actually, most of my fanfics do, so if you were wondering why there is so much similarity between my stories, thats why. **

**Thanks so much to the people who took the time to review and especially those who wrote me a whole paragraph, you don't know how happy that makes me. Here are my two favorite review, I love you guys.**

** Sarah11650 **

**Okaaaay, super-duper hooked now! I love this universe you've built with Santana's while backstory being fleshed out. I like the addition of the gang rivalries, and the realistic details about living in poverty. It's SUCH a great Santana piece, and I just feel super invested while reading it! I love that Quinn is so intuitive about San and can see something was not right. I'm curious to see what will happen now that she has a clue as to what her friend's been going through.**

** maskedcolors**

**As a Mexican who actually lives in a very ghetto neighborhood, I can totally say that most of this is accurate. I literally have a million cousins who have stayed with us for weeks at a time, and none of them can stick to one language. This is a very heart breaking read, but it dies shine light on issues that Ryan Murphy and his clan have never bothered with. 3 claps for you. 3**

**You guys are the best! Okay, here is chapter five with any more delay.**

Santana quickly crossed the room and sat down next to her crying friend. Quinn jumped when she noticed Santana.

"Santana!" She whisper-screamed. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here? Its almost ten. Whats wrong, why are you crying?"

Quinn tried to pull herself together again to explain but just started crying again. Juan, a waiter she was friends, with came over with a plate of food for her.

"¿Tienes comida para mi amiga?" She whispered to him.

"Si, que paso?"

"Yo no se" She said, shaking her head. Juan left to get some food for Quinn and Santana put her hand on her shoulder.

"Tell me what's wrong Quinn, maybe I can help you."

"I don't have anywhere to go." sobbed Quinn between heaving gasps. "My dad kicked me out because...because." She started crying again into Santana's shoulder.

"Because why? You can tell me, Quinn."

Quinn said something quiet under her breath.

"Sorry, what?"

"I'm pregnant." She burst into a fresh wave of tears.

"Oh, Quinn, I'm so sorry." She just held her blonde friend as she sobbed.

"Where am I going to go?" She tearfully asked no one in particular.

"Well," said Santana, knowing she was going to regret this. "You can stay with me..."

"Really? Your parents won't mind?" asked Quinn, hopefully.

"No, they wouldn't. We have a lot of people at my house anyway, I don't think they would notice." Quinn gave her a confused look.

"Do you have your car?" Asked Santana.

"No, they barely let me take my clothes." She gestured to her bulging school backpack under the table. "Where do you live?"

"On the south side." said Santana in what she hoped was a casual voice.

"Oh." said Quinn. Quinn had never been on the south side but she had heard stories about the crime and poverty there. She hadn't ever thought that it was where Santana lived, but she couldn't complain. She didn't have anywhere else to go.

Quinn and Santana finished their food and stood up to leave.

"¿Quieres que te lleve a casa?" (Want a ride home?) asked Juan as he finished wiping off the counters.

"Si, por favor." Said Santana gratefully. "Oh, yeah." She added to Quinn. "I forgot to tell you, but most of my family doesn't speak very much English. Well, the younger ones do but I don't think any of the grownups do."

"That's fine, I can practice my Spanish that I learned with Mr. Schue." said Quinn. Santana though about the awkward, white'ified, spanglish they learned at school and said

"Yeah. Lets go, my friend Juan can give us a ride."

The three of them got into Juan's old '82 Pinto. It had no passenger seat so Santana and Quinn sat in the back. As they drove south on Ashland Street, the streetlights reflected on Quinn's face, showing her shock as she looked out the window. Santana had to admit that the south side looked a lot worse in the yellow lights. The piles of garbage in the street and the vacant lots looked especially foreboding. Quinn gave a little jump when they passed a kid younger then them, maybe fourteen, holding a gun with an even younger child. The older kid pointed it up and shot out a streetlight. This was a common game in the Adjacent, Santana remembered "shooting glowies" as a kid, also.

Quinn's eyes were large as they turned on Garfield street, into the Adjacent Hell. Juan's car blew a tire crossing the railroad tracks into the Adjacent Hell and he swore colorfully in Spanish. Quinn and Santana got out of the car and thanked Juan for the ride before turning on Cabrini Street.

"Is this where you live?" Asked Quinn, quietly.

"In the big building at the end of the street." answered Santana. Suddenly they heard gun shots and they took off running.

"Shit." Thought Santana. "The last thing I need is a gang fight now." They reached Cabrini Green and Quinn looked close to tears.

"Its okay, Quinn." said Santana, trying to be reasurring. "I think those were just kids shooting glo- shooting out street lights. I don't think they were aiming for us." Quinn did not look reasurred in the slightest but she didn't say anything as they entered the building. Quinn took in the shattered glass in the windows, the bars over the door, the row of smashed mailboxes and the graffiti. There were several homeless people inside, sleeping on the floor as usual. Santana saw Miguel by the elevator and waved. He glanced at them then asked Santana in Spanish

"Who's the white chick?"

"My friend. Her parents kicked her out, give her a break."

"Okay, babe. I'm on cop duty for the gang today."

"Okay now let us up."

"Hello, Santana's friend." He said to Quinn in English. Quinn managed a hello. She hadn't missed Miguel's numerous tattoos, nor the gun he had stuck in his pants.

"Miguel. Venti-seis por favor."

"Si, reina." He said, showing them into the elevator like a host bringing people into a fancy restaurant.

Quinn was still trying to believe that this was Santana's life. She would never have guessed that the pretty, sophisticated and put together girl she saw every day came from the worst part of the slums. She glanced at Santana and noticed that her makeup was coming off and she could see a little bit of a purple bruise sticking out. That scared Quinn, too. Had Santana gotten into a fight with a gang? Was Santana in a gang? It seemed impossible, but so much of Santana's secret life had come out into the light that at this point, Quinn could believe anything.

The elevator doors opened and Quinn and Santana stepped out. They walked down a smelly, small hallway and Santana pointed out a bathroom at the end.

"Our apartment doesn't have a bathroom so if you need to go, this is the one for the floor." Quinn looked at Santana who glanced away, embarrassed. They reached the door and Santana froze with her hand on the doorknob. She turned to Quinn and said in a whisper

"Also, a lot of people live in my apartment, so...watch where you step. And whisper, the younger ones are already asleep." Quinn nodded, a little bit confused by the "watch where you step" part. She guessed that a few of Santana's cousins were sleeping over and maybe left their toys out, or something.

Quinn's questions were soon answered when the door opened and revealed people sleeping all over the floor, including under the table. On the table were several laundry baskets and boxes with sleeping babies and a toddler lay curled up like a cat on two chairs facing eachother. The windows had bars on them and the only light in the room came from the hallway, and from another room to the side, whose door was closed. A bare lightbulb hang from the ceiling turned off.

Santana gestured for Quinn to follow her and led her into the kitchen, where her mother was sleeping with her head on the table, a halfchopped tray of vegetables in front of her and a half empty bottle of vodka to her side. Santana quietly approached her mother and touched her on the shoulder, whispering "Mamá". Santana's mother jumped up and took a second to clear her headrush. Focusing on Santana, she pushed her against the wall and whisper screamed in Spanish

"Santana! Where were you? Its 10:45! I have been waiting for you! Your Tia said you were studying, but this is too late!" She searched her pockets for a wooden spoon and finding none, pulled off her belt and started to hit every inch of Santana she could reach until someone in the other room shouted "Maria! Callate! Take her in the hall if you wanna whip her but you're waking up the babies."

Maria took a deep breath, then noticed Quinn, who had been watching the scene with horror. Santana resisted the urge to smile. In Santana's opinion, she had gotten off easy in terms of getting home at 10:45. Some of her friends, like Miguel wouldn't have gotten away with a few whacks on the butt from el cinturon, their bodies would have been found in the gutters. To Quinn's sheltered eyes, that must have looked like the most extreme form of child abuse in existence. White people.

"¿Quien es esta gringa?" (Who is this white trash?) She asked Santana sharply.

Quietly and in Spanish, Santana explained Quinn's problems.

"She can stay here, of course, but you guys will have to find room on the floor I don't know where."

"Thanks, mami."

"How is your face, my love?" Asked Maria, nervously. Santana touched her cheek and said

"Its okay. Is he still here?"

"I kicked him out. He is very sorry. He came this morning with a bunch of flowers and wanted to apologize but you had already left."

"Its okay, mami, I forgive him."

During the whole time, Quinn had been mostly ignored and was horrifyed by what she had just witnessed. She remembered once seeing a woman threaten to slap her sons face who was having a tantrum at the fall carnival at her fancy private grammar school. In an instant, a large group of grownups had surrounded the two and separated them, threatening to call the police on the lady for child abuse even though she hadn't even hit the boy. This was so different, she had just seen Santana get beaten by a belt and stood up as if it was nothing. Now her and her mother were having a conversation in Spanish as if nothing had happened. She thought she had it hard being kicked out by her parents. Now she decided that Santana was being abused and lived in the most disgusting slum she had seen in her life.

Santana interrupted her train of thought by turning to her and saying "We need to find a place to sleep though because its pretty crowded tonight." Santana's mother turned to Quinn and said something in Spanish that Quinn didn't even catch a word of.

"She says that shes happy to meet you and that you can stay as long as you need." Translated Santana.

"Muchas gracias, señora Lopez." said Quinn, hoping it made sense in Spanish. Santana's mother smiled and gave them some bedrolls. The two girls thanked her and went off to the bedroom. The bedroom had one normal bed and one set of bunkbeds and each bed had several children on it. In the middle of the floor was a mattress with three young girls on it and a baby in what looked like a dresser drawer sleeping in the corner. The girls put their bags under the bed and found a space to sleep against the wall.

Quinn was happy that the next day was Memorial day and that they wouldn't have school. She wasn't ready to face the people at school just yet. Santana was nervous about the same fact. She didn't want Quinn to figure out how messed up her family life was but she didn't see any way around it. The ordeals of the day were floating around the girl's brain but sleep soon pulled them both over.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: I got a few PMs about generalizing about Mexicans. Let me get something straight. I am Mexican, I live in a neighborhood similar to the one in the story and my family life is also very close to that of the story. I am not writing this to generalize about any specific race. I am writing this story based on my life and if my life offends you, please do not read the story.**

**Sorry about that. Here's chapter six.**

Quinn laid on the foam mat, looking at the rusty metal ceiling, listening to Santana's slow breathing and thinking. Less than six hours ago, she had a fairly normal life. That seemed life years ago. She remembered the sinking feeling in her gut as she sat on the toilet seat in her bathroom, tears obscuring the little green plus-sign on the pregnancy test. She had almost hyperventilated, falling off the seat and lying on the floor.

To try and calm herself down, she had sat upright, counted to ten about a dozen times and forced herself to think about the basic facts she knew. Her name was Quinn Fabray. She was sixteen. She was pregnant. The baby was Puck's.

Thoughts clouded her efforts to remain calm. Would her parents support her? Would they kick her out? She didn't know what they would do because they had always avoided talking about anything the slightest bit troubling. Their problems that they avoided were small, unimportant isses. They had never had as big a problem as this. They had never even had a problem with Quinn. She was a model child.

Quinn decided to keep it hidden. That idea lasted for about an hour and a half. Quinn was watching TV in her room, trying to take her mind off of her ruined life when her father called a family meeting. The last time they all sat together and talked was when Quinn was four and her older sister was 8 and had gone over the neighbor's vegetable garden with a snowblower. That was twelve years ago and Quinn could not remember a serious conversation involving all four of them since. This left no doubt in Quinn's mind that he had something very important to say. Either Grandma had died or he had figured out and Grandma was healthy as ever.

Melanie had already moved out so the family sat in the dining room, her parents at one end and Quinn at the other. Russel started.

"I couldn't find phone a little while ago so I started to look around the house for it."

"Really, dear?" asked Judy Fabray, feigning interest as she swirled her martini.

"Yes so I went to the bathroom on the third floor and can you guess what I saw in the trash?" Quinn held her breath as Russel pulled out the positive pregnancy test.

Judy just sat in shock while Quinn cryed and begged. Russel pulled out the kitchen timer and set it to go off in ten minutes.

"I want you out of my house in ten minutes or hell will rise."

Quinn was a crying mess as she stowed some clothes and all the money she could find in her room into her school bag. She couldn't find her car key but she knew her father wasn't kidding so she grabbed her bus pass and bank card in case she would need money. She stuck Bunny, her beloved stuffed bear, into the bag, grabbed her Cheerios uniform and left for what she thought would be forever.

She had ridden trains and buses around the city for a while until she didn't want to waste anymore bus fare. She got off the train and found herself in a scary part of the city she had never been in before. Shrinking at the sight of barbed wire fences and homeless people on the curbs, she entered the first place she saw, a dirty 24-hour diner. It was there she ran into Santana.

As Quinn listened to the breathing of the many people sleeping around her, she tried to remember the last time she had slept in such a small room with so many people. This was the first time in her life. Yet Santana did every day and she had never complained at all.

She was nervous about tomorrow even though there was no school. She knew she was going to have to find herself a permanent place to live. She couldn't stay with Santana forever and what about the baby?

What was going to happen when she had the baby? She couldn't afford the necessary medical procedures, no sir. Ultrasounds? Forget it. She had about fifty dollars in cash and her bank account had only about three hundred. She had never thought much about saving money, she could always get whatever she wanted from Russel. Now, she was suddenly stranded, pregnant and with $350 to her once-worshipped name.

The sky began to lighten outside the small, barred window and the people in the room began to stir. The baby in the corner began to cry. Quinn crawled over and picked the baby out of the box. She held the baby close to her and rocked the baby, humming quietly. The baby's big, black eyes looked at Quinn with curiosity and cooed, smiling to show off pink gums.

Santana sat up and looked at Quinn and the baby. Santana whispered

"You got that devil baby to stop crying? You're a natural, that kid usually wakes up the whole floor." Quinn just smiled and held a finger up to the baby who grabbed it and laughed.

All at the same time, the three kids on the mattress began stirring.

"Move over, fatty, you're on my side of the pillow."

"Callate, cabron." (Shut up, dumbass) groaned the boy, his face in the pillow. The boy on the other end yawned and rolled over on to the floor. Santana laughed and the boy looked over, grinning. He noticed Quinn in the corner with the baby and asked.

"Who are you?"

"Santana's friend."

"Here, I'll take la bebe." He stood up and picked up the baby. Quinn thought it would be too heavy for him but the small boy carried the baby out of the room as if he did this every day. The kids on the beds were awake by now and mostly looking at Quinn.

"Stop staring, guys, she's not an animal in the zoo." snapped Santana at all of the dark, curious eyes.

"Es una gringa." said a girl on the top bunk.

"Callate, Elisa, es mi amiga y habla un poquito español."(Shut up, Elisa, she's my friend and she speaks a little Spanish." said Santana, indignantly. The Spanish part was a bit of an exaggeration but it got her cousin to stop talking.

The whole room was stirring and Santana said to Quinn

"Come on, let's leave before the rest of the house is up." They got up and went to the hallway bathroom to wash up before leaving the building. Quinn was hungry but eager to leave before the rest of the family was up. Outside, in front of the projects, they walked across the street to get breakfast from a street vendor. Santana ordered in Spanish and got them two elotes. Elote is a delicious and very unhealthy Mexican snack. It consists of a cup of cooked corn mixed with mayo, cheese, lemon juice and chili powder. It was the first time Quinn had ever had any and Santana watched as her face lit up when she taste it.

"So, Quinn." started Santana, cautiously. "Do you know what you're going to do? I mean, you can stay with me as long as you need but I feel like you're going to get tired of my family sooner or later."

"I know." sighed Quinn. "I think I'm going to try and get a job and my own place but I don't know how. And I have no idea how I'm going to pay for the medical bills."

"Well," said Santana. "I know where there's a free clinic for pregnant young people. My sister went there for her first two babies. Apparently, if you can prove that you're stil going to school and getting an education, they pay for all your hospital bills and even give you a loan once you get your own place."

"Really?" Santana nodded.

"Do you know where I could get a job?"

"Well, I work mornings and weekends at that diner from last night and they're looking for waitresses. And I'l bet you could tutor people for money, too."

"That's a good idea. Is the diner open today?"

"No, not on Memorial Day. But I'll take you there tomorrow in the morning. Also, there's a bakery that my aunt owns a few blocks from here and I can get you a job there, too."

"Thanks." said Quinn, gratefully.

Cabrini Green was across the street from a train yard which earned the Adjacent Hell the nickname and the expression "wrong side of the tracks". A few of Santana's cousins and her twin brother, Jesus, worked there. They unloaded and reloaded trains and trucks, pushing heavy loads of cargo on carts here and there. Santana and Quinn watched them running around the trainyard laughing while they worked.

"I know a way we can get money right now." said Santana, suddenly. Santana quickly whispered her idea into Quinn's ear and they jumped up, eager to get to work. They went to a nearby junkshop and bought a huge pot big enough for someone to sit in, and a rolling cart. Then they went to the corner store and bought a couple dozen packs of powdered lemonade and a bag of ice. They made a potful of icy lemonade and bought a few bags of styrofoam cups.

"Like the lemonade stands we made when we were kids." said Quinn, wonderingly.

They pushed the lemonade cart to the trainyard, where they quickly sold so much lemonade that they ran out of cups. The boys shared cups, eager to buy more. They ran out of lemonade within forty minutes. After the boys went back to work, the girls excitedly counted their money. They had spent about thirty dollars on supplies and made almost one hundred.

"Thank God its so hot outside!" laughed Quinn.

The girls made another batch and this time walked to a brickyard a little east of Cabrini Green. Again the same story. The men and boys sweatily fought over the remaining cups and after a short while, even the ice had been scooped out.

Santana and Quinn sat on the piles of bricks in front of Cabrini Green in the late after noon, counting their profits. They were shocked to have made almost $160 in profits in one day. Santana put aside $40 to give to her mother for rent and the two girls both walked away that day $60 richer.

They walked into Santana's apartment exhausted, starving and ecstatic over their new found buisness. Santana's family was welcoming to Quinn and she easily made friends with all of them, talking excitedly to those who spoke English. Marie cooked up a huge vat of chile and everyone sat around the small apartment, eating out of paper bowls, washed out empty food containers and whatever else they could find.

Quinn couldn't believe how happy she felt. Just yesterday, she was homeless and pregnant with no hope and now she could see light at the end of the tunnel. She would have this baby and give it the best home she possibly could.


	7. Chapter 7

Quinn woke up slightly more comfortably than she had the night before. Yesterday evening, some of Santana's cousins and brought in a rusty set of bunkbeds they had found in the dumpster and the family eagerly made room for them in the bedroom. Now there was barely room to walk because of the two sets of bunkbeds, the normal bed, and the mattress on the floor but the family, as always, found a way to manage.

The manner in which she woke up was much less enjoyable than it had been the day before. Santana was shaking her by the shoulders, whispering "Quinn! Quinn!" Quinn sat up and looked outside. It was pitch black.

"What?"

"Get up, its time to go to school." Quinn checked her watch.

"Santana! It isn't even four in the morning yet!"

"I know. I get up early to work and you're coming, too. Remember, I'm getting you a job?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks for waking me up."

"No prob. Let's go."

The two girls crept out of the dark room and into the kitchen, careful not to step on anybody. Santana's mother was passed out in a chair, empty vodka bottle next to har as usual. Santana ignored her mother and searched in the fridge for food. She tossed Quinn a cold tortilla with some beans, meat and cheese inside. Santana took one for herself, then the girls left the apartment. They washed up in the hall bathroom, then into plain white t-shirts, jeans and black converse, the diner uniform.

They waited for the bus, enjoying the night breeze. It was stifling in the project building, there wasn't even a fan. The girls entered the diner a few minutes early. Santana talked to her boss, a nice guy, for a few minutes in Spanish. He went back into his office and came back out with a hat and apron for Quinn. Santana translated for her boss, who explained what her job was. She was to bus the tables, man the dishwashers and make sure that the cooks always had clean dishes to serve food. Besides that, she would wipe the windows, the glass cases with pies inside and mop the floors. She would make $10/hour, same as Santana.

By eight o'clock, she was exhausted. "How has Santana done this for two years, every morning and survive the rest of the day?" wondered Quinn. The two girls collected their $30 each and the friendly cook sent them off with donuts and styrofoam cups of coffee. They changed into their Cheerio uniforms. There were less Cheerios than usual in the cafe in the morning because Quinn hadn't been able to give them rides.

Quinn could barely keep her head off of her desk at school. Her eyelids weighed a million pounds and head was killing her. Suddenly, she felt a wave of nausea roll over her. She put her hand over her mouth and raised her hand, gesturing towards the door. Thankfully, Ms. Duzick, the geometry teacher had four young kids and understood immediately, opening the door and whispering to her

"Take as long as you need, miss Fabray."

Quinn dashed down the hallway and made into a stall just in time to vomit up her donut and coffee from the diner. She washed her mouth out in the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Dark bags under her eyes, makeup smeared, she could barely recognize herself. She quickly popped in a piece of minty gum and touched up her makeup. She came back into the geometry room just as the bell rang. As she gathered her books together, Ms. Dudzick walked between the desks.

"Are you feeling better, Quinn?"

"Yeah, thanks Ms. Dudzick. I think I just ate something bad for breakfast."

"Okay. You can talk to me if anything's wrong, you know?"

"Yeah, thanks but I'm fine." Quinn hurried from the room, a little embarrased.

The rest of the day was impossible. Quinn didn't even try to stay awake for her classes, she just chose the seat in the far back corner and buried her head in her arms. She stuck her head up in Spanish a few times to watch Santana's family tree presentation. It was a beautiful project and Quinn couldn't help but smirk at the bullshittiness of it. The board had eleven people on in but there were about fifty family members at her home and Santana had told her that most of her family lived in Mexico.

If the school day had been hard, then Cheerio's practice was hell. Santana showed Quinn her trick of washing down a Five-hour-energy with half a bottle of Mountain Dew to live through practice and Quinn had to admit that it helped. Quinn found herself repeating Santana's excuses when the other Cheerios invited her to the mall with them.

She was so exhausted she could barely walk. It wasn't that she had never gotten up early, she had done that plenty for early flights to foreign countries. Today, though, she had been working nonstop since before 4 AM and she was plain beat. Santana saw her and understood.

"First day's the hardest. You'll get used to it."

The whole train ride home, thoughts raced around Quinn's head as fast as bullets. Did her parents miss her? Did they regret their harsh decisions? What would she do with her baby? For a fleeting moment, she imagined staying with Santana's family and her baby being raised with the other babies in the apartment. It was absurd, her life would definitely be back together by then.

Quinn opted to walk to the project instead of the bus because she needed some air to clear her head before the stifling heat of the building. Santana looked at her like she was crazy.

"Quinn, this is when the gangs are out. We can't just walk outside." The girls ran from the bus to Cabrini Green. Miguel met them in the lobby.

"Hey Quinn, hey Santana!" The three went up to the apartment together, talking and laughing like old friends. Santana's family kept the girls busy. While Quinn changed diapers and wiped an endless pile of dishes, Santana's relatives talked to her and encouraged her meager Spanish. By dinner, the whole room was laughing as Quinn imitated Coach Sylvester and the room smelled like posole. Quinn sat on the floor and ate with Santana and her cousins, most of whom spoke English thankfully.

That night, Quinn and Santana had gotten the top bunk of one of the beds. Santana had fallen asleep quickly but Quinn lay awake, thinking. She never had felt like she fit in her family. Sure, she was the spitting image of her mother and father but they always sat silently at the dinner table while Celia, the cook, brought them food. Everything they said to eachother was superficious, sugarcoated politeness, not real commuication. She had spoken more to Santana's family in three days than to hers in three years and she didn't even know Spanish.

"Well," she thought "If this is what my life is going to be, I think I'll manage."


End file.
